In the last several months, I’ve spent countless hours scrolling endlessly to make sure I caught everything post. I felt I was behind if I didn’t know what everyone had for breakfast or laughed at the lasted photo of a cat imprinted a clever message.

It was interrupting my family life and stealing my sleep.

But I’m taking steps — not quite 12 — to rectify the situation.

I opened a Facebook account in 2007 for the purpose of looking up folks who got arrested. It was an extension of my new job as crime reporter for The Daily News. Other than that, my Facebook page sat unused and blank for years.

Then in October 2011 — spurred by the newspaper’s former owner’s policy of social media involvement — I waded into the Facebook foray.

I’m used to my life being open to the public. From April 2008 to September of this year, I ran a local crime blog that was just as much about my experiences and how the job related to my family life.

The blog was hugely successful in 2008 and 2009 during the Cesar Laurean drama, began to wane in later years especially after Facebook began to occupy my time.

I ended “Off the Cuff” rather than see it decline to the point of obscurity.

A friend recently told me that Facebook has two stages: Wanting as many friends as you can get then wondering why in God’s name you would want that.

In those early months in my mad rush to have a high friend count I befriended anyone I had every known. Former lovers I’d hoped to never speak to again, colleagues I didn’t care for and even the bully who stuffed me into a gym locker in eighth grade.

A few wolves crept into the fold: People who made up fake Facebook accounts just so they could infiltrate people’s pages as part of the political intrigue that always seems to surround the sheriff’s office. Folks on both sides were trying to find out what I had to say about certain things. The effort was silly. I’ll tell anybody my opinion on anything; all they have to do is ask.

Then there were the political arguments. I admit these were my fault. My friends, my family and my town are mostly conservative. Posting anything liberal was sure to elicit a negative response. It was fun at first, but after awhile even I grew tired of the rigmarole.

These factors co-opted my Facebook page and turned it into a quasi-blog about local crime, my experiences and how the job related to my family life. Didn’t I just leave that party?

Page 2 of 2 - So after announcing it early last week, I unfriended everyone, leaving it up to them whether they invited me back to be a friend. I explained that perhaps they felt the same way and shouldn’t feel obligated to be my friend again.

So I lost a lot of “friends” last week — and I feel better already.

Out of the 400 friends I had, only a handful have volunteered to sign back up. A happily humbling experience.

I’ve had others tell me they’ve contemplated doing the same thing. We might not be at the tipping point quite yet, but I do believe more and more folks will do what I have done.

Social media will always be around. It’s like a technological genii no one can stuff back into the bottle. But we can control it to a certain degree. I’m choosing to spend my free time with my wife and kids.

Of course, I’ll still be writing this column about my reporting experiences and family life, and from time to time offer my political opinion. But as far as the Internet goes, my settings are now private.

Contact Daily News Senior Reporter Lindell Kay at 910-219-8455 or lindell.kay@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter and friend him on Facebook @ 1lindell.